Reminisce
by Miss Lilianae
Summary: The Guardian of Death has appeared before the ghouls of Anteiku seeking help. With the CCG hunting all forms of Ghouls will Death be caught up in a war once again?
1. Setting Foundations

Reminisce  
Chapter 1: Setting Foundations

Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul or any characters involved except for Guardian D. Death

A dark, rainy night in Tokyo Japan. The sky was pitch black except for the occasional strike of lightning. Down one side street was a warm light glowing brightly off a street sign advertising a small coffee shop. A cloaked figure passed the sign and entered the downward staircase into the establishment. As he approached the door, he shook himself off of all the rainwater and opened the entryway. Stepping inside he was met with the bright light of the shop's interior.

He descended the stairs and once he was at the bottom found himself in the middle of an empty café, save for a few individuals who were dressed as servers.

"Hello," one told him, a young man with short black hair and a bandage over his left eye.

The figure didn't reply as he looked over the establishment. With a growl he cleared his throat.

"Are you ok sir? Didn't get sick from the rain did you?"

"Where's your boss?" The man asked, his voice had a slight metallic echo when he spoke.

"Uh… he's unavailable at the moment sir, but I assure you we can assist you in whatever you need,"

"How about helping me find the ghouls of Anteiku?"

The whole group immediately tensed.

"I'm not sure I-"

"Enough beating around the bush… Kaneki Ken, the One-Eyed Ghoul," The man looked up from the ground and his hood fell back revealing a black mask of intricate goldwork covering his face. White hair was seen on the top his head.

The whole café immediately became tense, no one said anything until Kaneki swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Who are you?"

The man chuckled before his fit broke into full on laughter. "I'm the one know as Guardian D. Death. I have come seek a particular soul for collection,"

The group began to move toward him slowly but he held up a hand.

"I am not here for any of you, the one I seek is a boy by many standards. He goes by the name Hollow,"

"I was wondering when you were going to come after him," Yoshimura said as he entered the café.

"Sir?" Kaneki asked.

"I know this man, we go back a long way. You seem… different."

"Yoshimura," Death said with a bow, "I do admit that my resurrection was… difficult, and that my personality wasn't wholly restored. I've been told that lately I seem to not understand social ques,"

"Yes, your laughter was a little much,"

"My apologies, I'll do what I can to avoid such conduct in the future,"

Yoshimura nodded before he stepped behind the counter, he produced the materials to make a few cups of coffee.

"Care to join me?"

"Of course," Death said as he sat down.

The tension in the room seemed to drain completely, and everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"Sir, how do you know this man?" Tohka asked.

"Like I said, we go back many years. To give a simple explanation: He turns up from time-to-time and helps out, or when he needs help with something… how did the war go by the way?"

Death remained silent as Yoshimura's question.

"I see, a bit of a sore spot eh? Glad to see you made it out,"

"Not all of us made it out, as I mentioned earlier, my resurrection has left me fractured and incomplete,"

"What do you mean resurrection?" Kaneki asked as he approached the counter.

Death sighed before turning toward Kaneki, "Death is one of the aspects of the world, nothing lives forever, save for a few individuals. Guardians are no exception, and since Death is inescapable, my role as Death is inescapable. I understood the terms when I took on the mantle of the reaper, that I would be locked into it for eternity,"

"So, you died during the war?" Yoshimura asked as he finished pouring a cup of coffee before sliding it toward Death.

"Yes," Death took the mug and lifted it toward his mouth, he reached up and lifted the mask just enough to allow the mug to touch his lips and pour the liquid into his mouth.

"I'm sorry, I can't imagine what kind of pain you must've gone through,"

Death lowered the mug back onto the counter and set his mask back into place.

"It's irrelevant, as you said earlier, I only show up when I wish to help and need some myself. I explained my reason for being here: Hollow is running amok, and the council has finally decided to rein him in and have him pay for his crimes,"

"Why do you need our help?" Yoshimura asked.

"Ghouls are far more powerful than the human population of this world, and… if I approached the government in my condition, I fear they may not listen to me,"

"Oh? And why's that?" Yoshimura asked.

Death sighed before he reached up toward his mask, grabbing the bottom of it he lifted the face up and revealed his face, his hair immediately darkened to a jet black color, but his eyes were what had everyone's full attention: They were black like a ghoul's, with white iris and red pupils.

"What… what's wrong with your eyes?"

"The curse of becoming the reaper," He said as he lowered his mask back into place, his hair returned to its original snow-white color.

"Well, if I remember correctly, there are a number of unpaid debts that I owe you," Yoshimura told him.

"I was hoping you'd remember a few," Death joked back.

"What's the word boss?" Enji asked.

"You and Kaya are to stay here with me, Kaneki, Tohka, I'd ask you both to accompany Death on his mission,"

"Of course," Toka replied.

"Uh-yeah," Kaneki didn't seem as confident.

"Are you sure he's ready to fight someone like Hollow?" Death asked Yoshimura as he nodded toward Kaneki.

"If he doesn't face stronger opponents, he'll never grow stronger himself,"

"But if you toss a kitten to the wolves, it'll be torn to shreds," Death replied.

"I suppose, but I think Kaneki is far more competent than a kitten," Yoshimura smiled at his old friend.


	2. The Hunt Begins

Reminisce  
Chapter 2: The Hunt Begins

Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul or any of the characters involved except Guardian D. Death and Hollow.

Death finished his cup of coffee and was offered a room in the upper floor of Anteiku. The employees returned to their homes for the night as the shop closed.

The next morning Death was waiting outside Anteiku for Tohka and Kaneki. Once they'd both arrived he led them down the street away from the small café.

"So, what's the deal with this Hollow character?" Kaneki asked.

Death continued leading them down the street as he replied; "That's… a long story, what matters to you and this mission is that Hollow has the ability to siphon souls from his targets and that he has been killing people irresponsibly,"

"Wait… aren't you concerned he might siphon out our souls… or yours?" Tohka asked.

Death gave a negative sounding grunt.

"I can also manipulate souls, and as I explained last night, you can't truly kill me. Hollow would rip out my soul only for it to return a moment later under my control once again, and if tried it with either of you I would simply take it from him and return it to your bodies… again, as I explained last night: Hollow is a child, and does not grasp the full extent of his power. This is why the Council wishes to capture him, he needs to be taught how to handle his power properly,"

"Speaking of his power… it sounds similar to yours, is there any connection between you two?" Tohka asked.

Death stopped now, which surprised the two ghouls who looked at each other before fixing their gaze back on the Guardian. He turned to them halfway, his face still remaining hidden behind his mask.

"There is, but I would rather we not worry ourselves with something insignificant, our mission is to capture Hollow and that's what we're going to do," Death told them before turning and resuming his pace.

"Don't you think it's important if we know of some connection between you and this Hollow kid?" Kaneki asked as he and Tohka jogged to catch back up.

"No, it isn't, now drop the subject," Death told him.

"You're not very trusting are you?" Tohka asked him.

Death gave another negative sounding grunt.

Meanwhile, in an underpass on the other side of the city, two men wearing suits with long coats slowly paced around cautiously. The older of the two, a hunched over man with shoulder-length white hair, was carrying a case, he set it down as he knelt to the ground to examine something.

"What is it?" The younger man asked, he had short, dark hair and looked on edge.

"Seems we've found another sign of our mystery killer," The older man replied as he pointed down.

The younger man looked and immediately recoiled as his eyes rested on the image of a human, but their skin and eyes were chalk white and they looked like they'd died screaming.

"What the hell is this thing? Some kind of ghoul?"

"No… this is above and beyond anything Ghouls do, and besides, why would a ghoul leave the body behind? They can only survive by eating human flesh, this new threat is something entirely different," The older agent responded.

"Then we better report back to HQ about our findings here,"

"Yeah, give them a call, I'm going to investigate something on my own," The older man stood and picked up his suitcase again before walking deeper into the underpass.

The younger agent sighed before pulling out a cellphone and dialing in a few numbers. He was soon on the phone with headquarters and giving a situation report. While he was doing that he didn't notice the figure that darted past him, leaping from the side of the support pillars of the underpass stealthily. It eventually stopped when it had a view of the older agent. It clung to the pillar it was currently standing against, its grip cracking the stone slightly.

The older agent had detected the movement, _"This thing is sloppy,"_ he thought before pretending to see something on the ground at his feet.

Kneeling down to examine it he subtly unclipped the locks on his briefcase as he set it down.

"Perfect…" The figure whispered to himself as he saw the figure set his case down.

With a powerful push of his legs he kicked off the pillar and lunged forward toward the man.

"Nice try!" The agent shouted as he grabbed the case and pulled on it so the lid fell away. A mass of yellow-colored flesh burst forth and formed a shield around him.

The figure lodged a large scythe into it, but only an inch of the blade pierced the shield. With a growl the figure leapt away and the agent lowered the shield. Now that he got a look at this mystery killer he was a little shaken.

It looked human, but with snow white hair and pale skin, he couldn't have been more than sixteen. He wore a black jacket with gold spiraling details near the bottom, and matching black pants. A large scythe was held in its left hand, the weapon was very plain: a steel rod handle with a black, slightly curved blade.

"So, you're the thing killing all these people," The agent stated as he reached into his suitcase again, it had been tossed aside from the force of the shield emerging.

The figure grinned, which further unsettled the agent as he saw the lack of sympathy in its eyes. It charged at him again, readying the scythe for a deadly slash. He lifted the shield up once again to block the attack, and this time he readied a whip of the same material in his other hand. As the creature cut a large chunk of the shield away the agent retaliated with a crack of the whip, it connected with the creature and it hissed in pain before leaping back. He had gotten a good on it, its arm was now bleeding profusely.

"Well, you're not a ghoul, one little crack like that wouldn't have pierce their skin so easily,"

"No, I'm not one of those damned ghouls," The creature responded. Its voice was high-pitched, and the agent wouldn't have been able to tell if it was male or female if he couldn't see its body.

"Mind telling me what you are then? It'll make my report easier once I kill you," The agent responded as he cracked the whip once again.

The creature grinned at him, "My name is Hollow, that's all I'll tell you, my master says that it's the least you can do for someone you're about to kill is to tell them your name,"

"That's bold of you," The agent said with a grin.

"No, it's called being courteous," Hollow replied as he rushed the agent again.


End file.
